Monday, December 29, 2008

Hermana Daly~December 29, 2008..'party, party'

Hola familia!!> Hope everyone had an Amazing Christmas!!! Christmas in Chile is quite the late night party. We were able to stay out till midnight and we ate with a family my companion taught and baptized a year ago in the sector next to ours, so that was way fun! But Christmas in Chile is really Christmas Eve and everyone opens presents at midnight and then has parties and dances until like 3 or 4 in the morning. Chileans are definitely night people…I was telling the fam over the phone that Church activities are set to start at 7pm, but really don´t start until like 8 or 9 and go till 11 pm…but their Christmas dinner party/karoke/dancing went until 3 am in the church!!! Crazy crazy…I´ll have to come back after my mission and party late with them since I love the late nights lol. > But Christmas Eve day, our two zones in Arica did something really fun…we all practiced and sang Christmas hymns in the Centro all afternoon!!! The Centro is like the cute little main street of Arica with lots of people…and we even brought a keyboard piano with amazing accompaniment by Elder Somermeyer and Elder Hobbs played the violin. So half of us sang and the other half handed out cards and pamphlets and stuff…which kinda scared people away. So then we just had everyone sing and then lots of people stayed and listened haha – it was way cool!! > But like Sean, this week was also really slow because not many people were out Christmas day and were busy. (And Remember the Titans isn´t apostate…it´s quite motivational for the working missionary lol – my mission President is just cooler I guess haha…just kidding Sean!) Anyway, but we did have an amazing experience with Jocelyn, who is 19 years old and super bueno! She was a contact we had a few weeks ago and decided to try to find her at home again Saturday night, and she was! She had been taught before by missionaries, but then they left or something happened and she didn´t have more lessons with them. But she liked our whole first lesson and then we challenged her to go the Church the next day. She said she would and we asked if she wanted us to pick her up but she said no, she´ll see us there. So we prayed for her that night to attend Church the next morning because many of our investigators are way nice and agree to go to Church but can´t quite seem to make it or aren´t home when we go get them. > So Sunday morning came and we weren´t successful in getting Manuel to Church who we went and picked up…he walked the whole 20 minutes with us to the chapel and then didn´t go inside!! Unbelievable lol – he said because he hadn´t showered and wasn´t ready and would go next week. We tried to convince him for like 10 minutes outside the front doors just to go in for the beginning and he wouldn´t. So feeling kinda down we went into the chapel alone, but after the sacrament meeting Jocelyn came up to us!!! We hadn´t seen her there, but she said she came a few minutes late and sat in the back. But she said she had to leave early, so we took the opportunity to teach her a quick lesson in a classroom and commit her to a bautismal date and she said yes, she of course wanted to get baptized!! We were quite excited…she is such a sweet girl…and in her prayer she said she was grateful for us missionaries and to bless us and our families because being here and teaching her the gospel was the best thing to happen!! And this after knowing her barely a day…Heavenly Father truly prepares people for the Gospel!!!> I am grateful for my mission experiences! My first cambio will come to an end after this week, which is crazy!! My companion will be going home and it´s a surprise who will be my next comp  Love you all and enjoy life!!!!> > Lots of love,> Hermana Daly